#travelpost - Cartagena, Colombia

With a five hour drive from Santa Marta and a loooong hour bus journey with my backpack and small day pack on my lap on a crowded bus from the bus terminal, we arrived in Cartagena.
We got to our hostel, Papaya Getsemani, sorted our bags, had a shower and left for a wander. The hostel isn't in the old town centre, instead it's in an up and coming neighbourhood popular with backpackers, 10 minutes walk away from the main tower. I read the area used to be quite dangerous and a hotspot for crime but nowadays it's bustling with locals, backpackers and street vendors and has the perfect square for people watching. Right next to a police station!

Day one:
After getting in late from a long, hot journey we decided to have a short walk around the centre of the old town... We were immediately distracted by arepas con queso! The man persuaded me to try it with a fluorescent pineapple sauce and it was actually really good; we've seen the same arepa man now about 4 times in the old town with his little cart... He gives us a nod and a big smile. On our wander we spotted a super cute bookshop/coffee shop piled high with stacks of books, we had a peek in the window and told ourselves we'd come back tomorrow but tomorrow came and we tried to find it again to which we failed miserably.

That night we hung around the main square near our hostel, people watched, caught a wedding and fireworks, had some beers on the steps and ate something called plata con todo...TODO. It was intense. I'm pretty sure I didn't actually like it and kept eating anyway but Harry says it would be the perfect drunk food. Feast your eyes on this....

Day two:

On day two we hit the town again with our walking trainers on and cameras ready... 10 minutes out of the door and we were already walking like snails because of the heat. I think I said I was hot every three minutes, Harry stopped responding after ten.

Within the first half an hour we'd already hit up an ice lolly shop that we'd read about and soaked up the air con for as long as possible before it was obvious what we were actually there for. We walked some more, looked in a few shops and sat in some squares and ended up in a little old restaurant crammed with people for lunch... 8000 cops for two courses and a drink. Cheap and old school. On the walk home we stumbled upon Portal de Los Dulces, a tunnel in the made square full of sugared sweets, we got some coconut sweets to take away.

After a long siesta and FaceTime catch ups we headed to the popular La Cevicheria for dinner (another Bourdain spesh!). We got there just in time, as we grabbed a table a whole load of people flooded the place... Some were still waiting when we'd finished. I ordered shrimp ceviche and Harry had a fish, squid and snails with a coconut milk based sauce, it was so so good! After we headed back to our local square for even more people watching and cervezas.

Day three:
I'll keep it short and sweet... We had a lazy morns with a freebie breakfast and some internet time (doing those rounds) and finally found our bookshop/coffee shop. *applause emoji* . We had lunch at a cute little cafe and did a crossword.... We were two words short!!! Ben and Sinead you would have been proud! In the bookshop earlier we found a cool magazine that had the top five views of the city and we found that a chain called Crepes and Waffles had a balling venue in Cartagena so we went there for a crepe that we probably didn't need but a rooftop spot that we definitely did. The Museum of Modern Art followed and then home time for an afternoon nap.

#travelpost - Taganga, Tayrona and Palomino, the North Coast, Colombia

So after a few days in Santa Marta, still just me and Harry, we moved over to the next bay recently mentioned, Taganga.

We rented a private cabin from Cactus Hotel, on the hill with sea view and its own little terrace hammock included. We didn't get much done for those few days... we lazed about on the beach, had the best stuffed arepas from a street stall, took a boat trip for 6000 cops (around £1.50) to another beach about 10 minutes away and that's about it. The first night there was a power cut so we were out of lights and more importantly air con.... It was a long slog of a sleep. But the day next we got free breakfast from the lady that ran the hotel and they happened to include the tastiest eggs I've ever had plus fruit juice, coffee, another arepa and a bowl full of papaya and banana.

On Monday 31st Aug we headed back to Santa Marta to leave our big bagpacks with our hostel there and went to meet the others. We took our smaller bagpacks filled with beach things and mosquito nets and headed for a supermarket dash of tinned food and water before we hit Tayrona National Park. No alcohol or plastic bags or packaging can be taken into the park so the supermarket was tricky... In the end we bought plenty of tinned tuna and sardines, sweetcorn, nuts and stacks on stacks of water. We skipped straight passed the alcohol section even though we later learned that no one even checked our bags on entry to the park and a couple in the same camp pleasantly enjoyed a few bottles of wine that they managed to get away with.

Waiting for the bus to Tayrona, a guy pulled up in his air conditioned mini van and gave us a great price to Tayrona so we jumped in with him instead and he managed to take us a little further than the bus would have, saving us a bit of extra walking. I can't remember exactly but price into the park was about 39,000 cops (£8 roughly) but thanks to the kind man at STA travel we used our sneaky student cards and got in for 8000... Just under £2. Every little helps. The park guides sat everyone down before we could set off and showed us a video of the park, it's beaches and wildlife and off we went. We chose the first beach as it's the cheapest and quietest and 1.5 hours later we arrived at Camping Don Pedro to grab a hammock. The walk was pretty tough for me a person that does zero hours in the gym but I managed it, uphill, downhill, dodging lizards, spotting wild pigs, under monkey filled trees and over one stretch in the middle of hot hot sand. Jordan said he'd seen a snake too but I blocked it out as there would have been no chance of me making it if I'd have seen it.

We spent the night there, walked to a few of the beaches, shared our sleeping area with two bats and a tarantula and played a German card game in the evening heat... Taught to us by Julia, a German girl that joined us just after the supermarket that morning.

The next day we took one last swim and bathe on one of the most pristine and well preserved beaches in the world teehee and began our walk back to the entrance. The way back was so much worse. Then we caught a bus to our final place before heading to Cartagena... We went to Palomino.

Other than fincas on the beach there is'nt much else in Palomino but the beaches were beautiful! We stayed in a place called Finca Escondida and pretty much just chilled for 2 days.... Dipped in the sea, took advantage of happy hour and ate some pretty good food.

And that's it for our journey on the Carribbean Coast. Right now we are back in Santa Marta to catch an earlier bus to Cartagena whilst the other 3 carry on for a few days between the coast and forest with a bit more hiking. For us, we are gonna get to Cartagena a bit earlier cos' we gotta lotta love for the cities.

Ciao x

#travelpost - Villa de Leyva + San Gil, Colombia

After a hectic few days in Bogotá we started to make our way north heading for the Carribbean Coast. The road up is one slog of a bus journey so we decided to break it up by overnight stays at some smaller towns out in the sticks.

The first town we arrived at was a sleepy old town called Villa de Leyva, full of colonial buildings and the biggest Plaza Mayor in Colombia. We arrived just before sunset so by the time we'd found our hostel and stored our things it was dark out and the twinkly town lights were on. This was the first time I think that I completely relaxed on our trip so far, it was so different from the bustling nights in Bogotá; so, for that night we sat on the stairs of the main square, grabbed a beer and people watched....

And ate chicken...

We've eaten a lot of chicken.

 

The next morning we were headed for San Gil so we jumped in a small shack of a cafe, grabbed some eggs and juice and made our way to the next town.

 

Now San Gil was, again, totally different from Bogotá and totally different from Villa de Leyva. San Gil isn't really known for the town and the buildings itself but for what's around the town... Rivers, mountains, canyons and caves. Lauren and the boys went white water rafting on the first day there whilst I chickened out and took full advantage of the empty pool. That night we finally got to play the Colombian game tejo throwing blocks of stone at clay and explosives whilst fuelled on free beer, we went dancing with some others from the hostel and then had more chicken.

The next morning was our final few hours before getting the 10 hour overnight bus to Santa Marta on the Carribbean Coast. When I say few, I really mean an entire day from 11am check out to 9.30pm bus ticket. So, with that we crammed in a morning at a natural pool Pozo Azul 5 mins from San Gil and a short stop at Chicamocha national park to see the canyons and mountains from high up.

All in all a great way to break up a huge journey north.